1. Field of the Invention
Mowers of hay have encompassed many types and forms of cutters. Some of these mowers have included mechanisms to windrow the cut hay. Recently mowers of the type depicted in the U.S. Pat. No. 3,391,522 to Zweegers and known generally as drum mowers have gained considerable acceptance because they are efficient and the cutters themselves inherently effect a windrowing without auxiliary mechanisms. Here, radially disposed cutters on adjacent horizontally disposed disc members which are rotating inwardly toward each other act to cut hay and deposit it first on the disc members for discharge and then in a windrow rearwardly at the point of juncture of the two discs.
Various drives, such as bevel gear sets, cooperative worm and worm gears, the V-belts have been utilized to effect rotation of the horizontally disposed cutting discs and their generally vertically upstanding center sleeves of large diameter. The cutters with their sleeves together resemble drums. The present invention is concerned with an economical and efficient way to rotatably drive the drums and the disc cutters of these defined mowers. This new drive utilizes the frictional engagement of a plurality of pneumatic tired wheels.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A patent search was conducted and the following United States patents were believed to be pertinent to the patentability of the device of this invention.
Despain et al, U.S. Pat. No. 879,089 PA1 Altheide, U.S. Pat. No. 1,130,365 PA1 Dow, U.S. Pat. No. 2,743,565 PA1 Swanson, U.S. Pat. No. Re. 25,379 PA1 Murphy et al, U.S. Pat. No. 2,872,770 PA1 Murphy, U.S. Pat. No. 3,306,016 PA1 Miles, U.S. Pat. No. 3,319,406 PA1 Zweegers, U.S. Pat. No. 3,391,522 PA1 Zweegers, U.S. Pat. No. 3,389,539 PA1 Zweegers, U.S. Pat. No. 3,443,369 PA1 Hanson et al, U.S. Pat. No. 3,445,991 PA1 Fischer, U.S. Pat. No. 3,486,269 PA1 Van Der Lely, U.S. Pat. No. 3,550,360 PA1 Wehde, U.S. Pat. No. 3,716,974 PA1 Kasberger, U.S. Pat. No. 3,735,572
The search patents fall in several general categories. Drum type mowers are depicted in the three patents to Zweegers and the patents to Van Der Lely and Kasberger. In all of these, there is no disclosure of any frictional drive. The Despain et al. and Swanson patents show multiple disc mowers with the cutting members of adjacent discs offset slightly so there is an effective overlap of the mowers and a guarantee that the mower will cut the entire transverse span of the mower discs without any hay missed at the adjoining edges. The Altheide, Dow, Murphy et al., Murphy, Miles and Hanson et al. patents relate to mowers and show the employment of frictional drive between elements disposed at right angles to one another. The Van Doorne, Fischer and Wehde patents show the employment of frictional drives between rotating wheel members lying in the same plane. The Van Doorne patent shows the use of a vertically disposed friction wheel driving vertically disposed ground engaging wheels. The Fischer patent shows a frictional drive between rubber rotors for use in toy operations. The Wehde patent uses cooperating pneumatic tires to grip and feed crop stalks into a sickle bar for the severing of the stalks. There is no prior art which shows or even hints at any of the drive mechanisms as disclosed in the subject patent application. Others have previously utilized pneumatic tires and other rubber surfaced wheels to transmit drive by frictional engagement. However, it appears that these prior users positioned their tires at right angles to one another and not in a single plane with the peripheries of the adjoining tires directly engaging one another. Tires driven at right angles wear excessively at their engaging surfaces whereas tires driving tires in a single plane wear very little. Applicant utilizes a single plane pneumatic tire drive.